The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it would hold an emergency meeting next week to determine whether to classify the global monkeypox outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
The UN agency is also working to rename the disease, which was confined to West and Central Africa until more than 1,000 cases were detected in dozens of countries around the world in the past two months.
“The monkeypox outbreak is unusual and worrying,” the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters.
“For that reason, I have decided to convene an emergency committee under international health regulations next week to assess whether this outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern”.
The emergency committee will meet on June 23 to discuss the designation, the biggest warning ever to be heard by the UN agency.
new name
Tedros said that “WHO is also working with partners and experts around the world on renaming the monkeypox virus … and the disease it causes.”
“We will announce new names as soon as possible.”
The announcement comes after more than 30 scientists wrote last week that “there was an urgent need for a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing nomenclature for monkeypox”.
“In the context of the current global outbreak, the continued reference and naming of this virus as African is not only incorrect, but also discriminatory and stigmatizing,” he wrote.
While monkeypox was first discovered in macaques, many cases are believed to be transmitted to humans by rodents.
Common early symptoms of monkeypox include high fever, swollen lymph nodes, and a blistering chickenpox-like rash.
However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that current cases do not always cause flu-like symptoms, and the rash is sometimes limited to certain areas.
Tedros said the WHO has received 1,600 confirmed cases of monkeypox and 1,500 suspected cases from 39 countries this year, 32 of whom have recently contracted the virus.
Tedros said 72 deaths have occurred in countries where monkeypox was already endemic, but none have been seen in newly affected countries.
“However, WHO wants to confirm reports of monkeypox-related deaths in Brazil,” he added.
no mass vaccination
To fight the global spread, the WHO aims to recommend “tried and tested public health tools, including surveillance, contact-tracing and isolation of infected patients”.
Although the WHO does not recommend mass vaccination against monkeypox, he said, the European Union said on Tuesday that it had bought about 110,000 vaccine doses.
“While smallpox vaccines are expected to provide some protection against monkeypox, there is limited clinical data and limited supply,” Tedros told reporters.
“Any decision about using the vaccine should be made jointly by individuals who may be at risk and their health care provider, based on an assessment of the risks and benefits, on a case-by-case basis.”
Rosamund Lewis, the WHO’s technical chief for monkeypox, told reporters that there are some smallpox vaccines that can be protective against monkeypox.
But “the data we have that’s been there for years, and/or from clinical studies — there’s not a lot of clinical data,” she said.
She called on countries that are vaccinating to share their research and pointed to a set of interim guidance documents issued by the WHO.
Tedros also emphasized that vaccines should be “equivalently available wherever necessary,” adding that WHO is working with its member states “to develop a mechanism for fair access to vaccines and treatments”. doing.